CASE NAME: Lacerna v Vda.

De Corcino and Jacoba Marbebe

GR NO: L-14603
DATE: April 29, 1961

Facts: This action was instituted by Ricardo, Patrocinia, Patria, Faustino, Leonor, Ramona, Asuncion, Emiliana, Arsenio and
Felipe, all surnamed Lacerna, for the recovery of three parcels of unregistered lands, situated in the municipality of Maasin,
Iloilo, and more specifically described in the complaint, upon the ground that said lands belonged to the deceased Juan Marbebe,
and that his cousins, plaintiffs herein, are his sole heirs.

In her answer, defendant Agatona Vda. de Corcino alleged, inter alia, that Juan Marbebe might still be alive; that she held the
disputed lands under a power of attorney executed by Juan Marbebe; and that, if he has died, she is entitled to succeed him in the
same manner as plaintiffs herein, she being related to him in the same manner as plaintiffs are.

With the court's permission, Jacoba Marbebe filed an answer in intervention alleging that she is a half sister of Juan Marbebe
who died intestate, leaving neither ascendants nor descendants, and that, as his half sister, she is entitled, by succession, to the
properties in dispute.

After due trial, the court rendered judgment for the intervenor.

The lower court found, and appellants do not question, that the lands described in the complaint belonged originally to Bonifacia
Lacerna. Upon her death in 1932, they passed, by succession, to her only son, Juan Marbebe who was, subsequently, taken to
Culion where he died intestate, single and without issue on February 21, 1943.

It appears that petitioners father was the brother Juan Marbebes mother, Bonifacia Lacerna while private respondent Jacoba
Marbebe was the the daughter of Juan Marbebes Father from his first marriage.

Petitioners pretense is based upon the theory that, pursuant to Article 891 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, establishing what
is known as "reserva troncal", the properties in dispute should pass to the heirs of the deceased within the third degree, who
belong to the line from which said properties came, and that since the same were inherited by Juan Marbebe from his mother,
they should go to his nearest relative within the third degree on the material line, to which plaintiffs belong, not to intervenor,
Jacoba Marbebe, despite the greater proximity of her relationship to the deceased, for she belongs to the paternal line.

Issue: Who has the better right to succeed?

Ruling: Jacobe Marbebe has the better right to succeed.

Ratio: The main flaw in appellants' theory is that it assumes that said properties are subject to the "reserva troncal", which is not
a fact, for Article 891 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, provides:

The ascendant who inherits from his descendant any property which the latter may have acquired by gratuitous title from another
ascendant, or a brother or sister, is obliged to reserve such property as he may have acquired by operation of law for the benefit of
relatives who are within the third degree and who belong to the line from which said property came. (Emphasis supplied.)

This article applies only to properties inherited, under the conditions therein set forth, by an ascendant from a descendant, and
this is not the case before us, for the lands in dispute were inherited by a descendant, Juan Marbebe, from an ascendant, his
mother, Bonifacia Lacerna. Said legal provision is, therefore, not in point, and the transmission of the aforementioned lands, by
inheritance, was properly determined by His Honor, the Trial Judge, in accordance with the order prescribed for intestate
succession, particularly Articles 1003 to 1009 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, pursuant to which a sister, even if only a half-
sister, in the absence of other sisters or brothers, or of children of brothers or sisters, excludes all other collateral relatives,
regardless of whether or not the latter belong to the line from which the property of the deceased came.